Mother Serbia

For other uses, see Serbia (disambiguation).
Mother Serbia at the top of the Government Building

Mother Serbia (Serbian: Мајка Србија / Majka Srbija; Србија мати / Srbija mati ), Serb Mother (Serbian: Српска мајка / Srpska majka) or Mother of All Serbs[1] (Serbian: Мајка свих Срба / Majka svih Srba), is a female national personification of Serbia, the nation-state of Serbs.

The nation of Serbia has historically been portrayed as a motherland (sometimes also being referred to as the fatherland i.e. Otadžbina), with all visual personifications of the nation represented as a woman. She was used as the metaphoric mother of all Serbs.[1] Serbian national myths and poems constantly invoke Mother Serbia. She was also used to symbolize the early feminist movements in Serbia and Yugoslavia, such as the Circle of Serbian Sisters which formed in 1903 and lasted until 1942, only to be re-established in 1990.[2][3]

The territories inhabited by ethnic Serbs outside Serbia can be represented as the children of Mother Serbia.[4] Serbia may also be described as a daughter of Mother Serbia, alongside other Serb territories, as in Dragoslav Knežević's poem Mother Serbia: "One sister younger than the older Montenegro and Serbia, In peacetime and in war Krajina joins the Serbian flock".[4] Personifications of Yugoslavia would parallel the ones of Serbia and Croatia in appearance, largely due to similar artists and sculptors depicting both personifications, as well as the spread of Yugoslavism. Most depictions of Yugoslavia in Serbia would later be renamed and/or represent Mother Serbia, due to Serbia being the main founder and successor of both royal and socialist Yugoslavia.

  1. ^ a b Dubravka Žarkov; Kristen Ghodsee (13 August 2007). The Body of War: Media, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Break-up of Yugoslavia. Duke University Press. pp. 51–. ISBN 978-0-8223-9018-3.
  2. ^ Garčević, Srđan (11 September 2017). "Hidden Belgrade (16): The Forgotten Feminist Palace". thenutshelltimes.com. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  3. ^ Renata Salecl (31 January 2002). The Spoils of Freedom: Psychoanalysis, Feminism and Ideology After the Fall of Socialism. Routledge. pp. 17–. ISBN 978-1-134-90612-3.
  4. ^ a b Ivan Čolović (January 2002). The Politics of Symbol in Serbia: Essays in Political Anthropology. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. pp. 32–33, 52. ISBN 978-1-85065-556-5.